Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — At his winter meetings news conference today, Tigers manager Jim Leyland addressed how he will go about replacing José Valverde as the closer next season. The Tigers don’t have an established closer, but they have relievers who have saved games (Octavio Dotel, Joaquin Benoit and Phil Coke), and they have rookie Bruce Rondon, who has been overpowering as a closer in the minors.

QUESTION: Do you prefer to name someone full-time to that job as opposed to going by committee?

Leyland: “Preferably, I’d like to have somebody. When a manager has a guy like a Mariano Rivera or (Jonathan) Papelbon or Valverde last year, they are really good at what they do, and you’re very rarely second-guessed. When you bring those guys in, you’re not answering questions after the game. When you have to do it by committee, if you have to pick and choose, then you leave yourself open for second-guessing. It’s hard to find those guys . . . sometimes you don’t, and you just make do.”

QUESTION: If you don’t add anybody like that, do you think you might just pick somebody to start the season as the closer before you would go to a committee?

Leyland: “I think we’ll find out some of that information in spring training. You get a pulse. A lot of that closer situation has to do with the personality of the pitcher. His stuff is good enough, but the mental part of that can be very fragile.

“I know the guys who are on our team . . . Rondon is certainly a possibility to get an opportunity. I’ll get a pulse for him in spring training — what I feel about him, his makeup.

“The one thing that Valverde was very good at was that he could turn the page pretty quickly. A closer has to be able to do that. When you get a young guy, I don’t know for sure how a guy is going to respond. You don’t know until you give somebody that opportunity and things happen and they let one get away. How did they respond to it? How did they bounce back the next day?

“It’s such an important part of your team because when you let them get away in the ninth inning, obviously those can have an impact on your entire team. So that guy is going to be huge for us, as he is for every other team.”